It was darker, here, than he had hoped.

He rose more boldly to the peep-hole.
Under the arch of swords, the new recruits, now standing upright, stretched one by one their wrists over the goblet.

The Incense Master pricked each yellow arm, to mingle human blood with the blood of the white cock; then, from a brazen vessel, filled the goblet to the brim.
It passed from hand to hand, like a loving-cup.

Each novice raised it, chanted some formula, and drank.

Then all dispersed.